By now, just a few minutes after wrapping up his press conference in Augusta, there has already been countless versions of psycho-analyzation by a hoard of so-called experts.
Already, he has changed what was an almost robotic routine for him while there. In the past, without fail, he would show up on Monday, play at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and do his presser and not be seen or heard from unless he was near the lead of the tournament.
Call it coaching, call it from the heart, a change of attitude, whatever you want...there seems to be a difference. Tiger 2.0 seems to be a bit more personable, more aware of what is going on around him.
In the past, he rarely... if ever... acknowledged the gallery or paid much... if any... attention to reporters. Today and yesterday, he did both. Not that being "nice" to reporters makes everything OK... it doesn't. But it is a start.
During today's practice round, he was very cordial and as some described... "friendly" with the crowd. Again, unusual, he rarely, if ever paid any attention to them in the past.
((Tiger on the course//Courtesy: toppayingideas.com))
There will be those out there in the blog world and on TV and in print who will say "He still didn't say enough."
To that, he did. What else do you need for him to say?
Were there a couple of questions he could have answered better? Sure. He wasn't very specific about the whole Ambien thing, but he wouldn't be the first person to have issues on it.
He did answer, to an extent, some questions about his relationship with Dr. Anthony Galea who is under investigation for performance enhancing drugs. Woods also said that he had been contacted by Federal investigators about Dr. Galea.
There were the expected questions about his wife and no, he didn't give a reason for her not attending. It could have been her still dealing with things or keeping her distance from him... or it just could be that they didn't want her targeted during the tournament.
There were a lot of golf questions... again... expected since it was a room primarily full of Sports and golf reporters. He seemed to... at times awkwardly try to be friendly and smile at each of them.
((Tiger approaches #12 on Monday//Courtesy: Curtis Compton/AJC.com))
All in all, it was a good showing. From the entrance through the room instead of the traditional arrival from behind the curtain, there seemed to be a concerted effort to do things differently.
Will that carry on past this week? We'll see.
Does that excuse his behavior in the past? No. It shouldn't.
Does it infer that maybe things can finally move forward? Yes, I think it does.
If you disagree with that, I would love to hear a rational reason why.
Undoubtedly, this story will be broken down ad nauseum for the next 24 hours of the News cycle. There will and probably already have been tons of "breakdown" comments from so-called experts who will speculate on his mindset and posture and pretty much every movement and word he said and did. No doubt the "Tabloid" shows will be all over this... from a distance... and surely there will be the list of alleged mistresses asked for a response.
And yes, we will watch some of it out of curiosity.
Here is some video of Woods practicing at Augusta this morning:
Thanks CBS News...
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